Making a trip from Asheville, NC to Athens, GA the first week of November and would like to take some of the back roads. I'm fairly familiar with the roads in NC, but would love some suggestions for SC and Georgia.

Just looked this over. I've been on most of the ones in Georgia with my monster Stelvio while two up. There are a couple of them north near the Blue Ridge Parkway though that I am not familiar with.
There is also a creek crossing on Helton Creek Rd that can get a bit deep at times. I crossed it once on a street bike, yet I have been there on a bike with a lot of ground clearance and decided not to go.

Saw your track from Athens to Asheville. You mentioned it was about 212 miles. Just curious, did you do it in a day or two days? I have ridden a lot of the TAT and it is pretty much based on 200 miles a day but they can be longggggg days.

I google earthed your track and it looks good as far as percentage of dirt (the more dirt the better). If you had to guess what is the percentage, dirt vs asphalt? I assume there is no private land involved in this track, correct? Thanks for posting the track. I'm looking forward to riding it.

Re: Athens to Asheville
I haven't ridden from Athens to Asheville. I have ridden all the dirt roads in the Athens to Asheville file.

212 miles is a long way in the Smokeys, especially if you want to stop and smell the roses along the way.

I would guess 60/40 dirt and paved. No private land but state or national forest roads may be gated.

The dirt section east of Hiwassee, north of US 76 (Charlie's Creek Rd) can be challenging if you are on a big bike.